DERIKE, Syria (RNS) Like many Americans, Jordan Matson is outraged by the brutality of the Islamic State. But unlike virtually every other American, he decided to take on the militants head-on.
Now, the 28-year-old Racine, Wis., man is recovering in a hospital in northeastern Syria from a shrapnel wound in his foot, the result of a mortar attack by Islamic State fighters in Jazaa, along the Iraqi border.
Tall with slightly graying hair, Matson conceded that people back home might call him crazy for joining Kurdish forces three weeks ago to help end the Islamic State’s reign of terror.
“I couldn’t just sit and watch Christians being slaughtered anymore,” he said in an interview with USA Today. “I got sick of giving online sympathy. Five minutes of lip service does nothing. These people are fighting for their homes, for everything they have.”
Matson was critical of the United States for being slow to launch air attacks on the Islamic State militants, who have been fighting in Syria for three years and seized large portions of Iraq earlier this year.
“It wasn’t until an American was beheaded did we do anything,” he said of the execution of journalist James Foley in August. “We just let the monster grow and grow.
“They asked me a few questions to make sure I wasn’t pro-ISIS and then they told me I could come. I just flew by the seat of my pants.”
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to discuss Matson for privacy reasons and said she was unaware of any law barring a U.S. citizen from fighting with the Kurds.
Matson flew from Chicago to Warsaw to Istanbul and then drove to Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey. There he was picked up by a YPG member who drove him to Iraq, where he crossed the border into Syria pretending to be a doctor.
“They don’t pay me, but they treat me like family. If I need anything, they look after me,” he said.
